 |
| Which of these things is not like the other... |
It's July. Time for the respective Reform campaigns to get their houses in order. How are they doing?
Last night one campaign held its kick-off; about 100 supporters attended. Nice turnout! Folks looked like they were having a good time.
GA read one online report about the event; it appears that a rebranding effort is underway. The campaign is described as a "reform resistance" movement up against the "status quo."
GA assumes the object of "resistance" is one of New Jersey's most progressive mayors- Hoboken's first Jewish, female Democratic mayor.
RESIST!
The tyranny of balanced budgets!
The acquisition of 9 acres of open space for parks!
The $260M Rebuild By Design grant and new H-5 pump!
The City's AA+ bond rating!
No increases in municipal tax!
$31M dollars in Suez Water infrastructure upgrades!
Viva la resistance!
And what's that crappy "status quo" campaign up to?
They aren't resisting.
They're working hard to get their organization off the ground. So far, the campaign is fully staffed with a one full time employee, a media consultant, a design firm, a fund raiser, a social media consultant and a full 3 -person slate. Polling has been done. The campaign has about $150K on hand. Man, it sucks to be "status quo." GA hears that the candidate and his slate are "working their tails off" knocking on doors every night and on weekends. Their HQ opening is next Tuesday.
RESIST!
Oh yeah, here's a letter from the "status quo" Councilman Jim Doyle (who his gorgeous wife Leah Healey can't resist).
In his letter, "Status Quo" Doyle ( "SQD" for short) explains why he chose to run with "Status Quo" Ravi ("SQR"), to the consternation of the "resistance."
Hi Nancy,
As you probably know, my friend and colleague, Councilman Ravi Bhalla is running for Mayor of Hoboken, and I'm thrilled to join his team. I've served with Ravi on the Council, and I know firsthand that there is no better person ready to hit the ground running on Day 1 as our next Mayor.
Throughout his eight years on the Council, Ravi has faced difficult votes with real life consequences, and he has consistently done the right thing for our City. When Mayor Dawn Zimmer and Ravi first took office, the City's finances were in dire straits, with municipal taxes having risen 70% the year before and the State having taken over the City's finances. Ravi supported Mayor Zimmer's plan to restructure and redeploy the police and fire departments that increased patrols, but also saved taxpayers millions of dollars. Thanks to these types of difficult decisions, Hoboken's taxes were stabilized, and the City was able to steadily improve it's financial condition from near junk-bond status; ultimately acquiring the AA+ bond rating that it has today.
Ravi also demonstrated real leadership as Council President when our hospital was on the brink of closing. Ravi worked closely with Mayor Zimmer to garner public support and provide testimony to the State to secure the continued existence of a hospital in Hoboken - and its 1200 local jobs - and marshal approval for it by the Council. Thanks to a lot of hard work, in partnership with the Hoboken Hospital Authority board, the hospital was saved, and the taxpayers were relieved of the potentially devastating impact of a looming $52 million bond guarantee.
These are just examples of Ravi's forward thinking in the face of difficult votes. There are many more, less high-profile examples where I've witnessed Ravi's humble leadership, and these are all reasons why I know he'll make a terrific Mayor of our City. If you also support Ravi, please let me know - I'd love to hear from you.
Thanks,
Councilman Jim Doyle
Nice post GA, it's clear you're a Ravi partisan, and Roman desparately wants Jen to run. Breaks my heart to see both of you fighting so angrily on his site.
ReplyDeleteThis morning, I'm still more than a bit blown away that Ravi would offer to include polls questions for Jen in an offer to Peter. If true, it speaks to his character (maybe confidence too?). It also gives me a bit of hope.
Which leads me to my questions for the morning: Who are the people who are going to help us get it together? I saw Jen's speech at her fundraiser. It didn't create distance between her and Ravi on principal. It was a bit disturbing to read because I just kept thinking, "we agree, why are we running two campaigns? This is completely nuts."
Is there a group of Reformers in town who are committed to bringing us together? Can they be a bridge? I know Peter and Tiffanie have told many that there will be one Reform candidate and slate in November and but first Jen needs a chance to develop a campaign, and then want to evaluate it and Ravi's. Is that really true? Will anyone gently but firmly hold them to it? Can we find a group of people who are not campaigning but committed to unifying us?
I don't want to see softer or harder versions of what you and a Roman are fighting about bother before the election or after when in all likelihood we will lose. Sometimes you have to make a choice and that's good on principle, this is not a good choice for all of us to have to make. It's terrible and hurting relationships all over town.
Ah, we're both New Yorkers- we can give and take punches.
DeleteI will do everything I can to elect a Reform mayor.
The optics of the Giattino campaign (e.g,. the party affiliations, lack of diversity) won't do them any favors and are just putting MDF targets on their back.
ReplyDeleteI have a few thoughts:
ReplyDelete1. I am very sad to see GA and Horsey are at odds.
2. I hope that come November, regardless as to who is mayor, that rift can be fixed.
3. Egos being what they are, I'm not sure anyone would drop out of the race regardless as to what Peter and Tiffanie have said.
4. Agree with the above poster who has pointed out that there's little to no daylight between the candidates. Either Jen comes out and says "I'm running & I'm the better choice for reform because. . ." Or she runs the risk that people are going to think a few very negative thoughts about her/her homogeneous campaign.
snoopy- Horse and I have been at odds before just never publicly. Let's just say we are very different people with strong convictions. We align on political corruption.
DeleteHopes: the other Reform campaign starts to follow some campaign norms instead of taking ad hoc swings and jabs. They desperately need to poll to understand the political landscape, their own relative strength, and where they should be aiming critical discourse. If MSV is the voice of the campaign, so far they are fucking up. They should do polling, then in August both Reform campaigns should meet, and discuss whose message is getting traction and whose is not. Who me is the weaker campaign plays spoiler.
Fears: the weaker campaign will play spoiler.
Agreed on the campaigns and the likelihood of the weaker one playing spoiler. I just don't see someone dropping out, thought they should even if it's just a few percentage points ("within the margin of error") difference.
Delete